SO approached in mall yesterday by a

nice Russian gentlement who was carrying a bunch of prescriptions and a book of wheelchairs and related medical equipment. Said he could get him an electric wheelchair made of titanium as he noticed SO was in the push one (am still trying to bench press to get to 200 pounds so I can get the electric one in the darn truck).

The guy had sooo many tat's I was sure there must be a circus around somewhere he had waundered away from - he did attempt to look presentable I guess with a long sleeve shirt and wearing his collar straight up cause the tats were up his neck, down on his hands and into his head.

Said to SO all he needed to do was get a RX from an osteo and he can get one ordered from Medi-cal. Even better, to move things along for him, he offered to pick him up from the house and take him to an osteo doctor that was a friend of his and he would write the RX for him. ..Took SO's phone number and gave him a business card (which was really a name tag with the name of his company and phone number written in pen on it)

SO was kinda jazzed - I told him, gee, thats a chunk of change that fell into your lap unasked for. He said yeah, can you believe it, those new titanium wheelchairs cost a lot of money.

I then replied that, no I wasn't talking about the wheelchair, I was talking about the 1,000 reward from the State of California for Medi-Cal fraud.. Did you forget I do insurance for a living??

I am going to report it - just peeves me off when people take advantage of the system.

Kitty, he has an electric wheelchair he can use, but the darn thing weighs about 200 pounds -even with breaking it down which I can do in record time, Its hard for me to get it in the back of the truck. I bought ramps, but it is not helping that the truck is lifted a couple of feet so they just sorta hang straight almost from the back.

It just makes my hair stand on end when I see people do this stuff. SO didn't believe me yesterday, so today he went next door to the Visiting Angels who work with Medi Care in providing help for the elderly and ran the senario by them. And they told him looks like insurance fraud to them as well, and not to do it.

It was such a struggle getting SO his wheelchair in the first place, it took years, and even to get him on Disability was horrific, and here this dufus is selling medical equipmemt working his scam in the mall of all places.

He didn't call SO today, probably because he noticed my furrowed brow staring daggers at him and his fist full of RX's in his hand.

On the ramp issue - husband made a ramp for me, which folds. He actually made a model version using Meccano, just to get the idea right first. And that way, I can get my wheels into our van all by myself. The ramp folds down into a quarter the size and then lifts up and sits behind the "beast".

by the way, my wheels are an electric scooter, those mobility things you see old folks tootling round on, in the old folks' homes. I can get off an walk, I carry my crutches on it as well.

What we do - I unfold the ramp so it is sitting on the edge of the van boot. For this to work, you need the floor to be level to the edge of the door, not have a lip on it of 6" or more like some vehicles do. The ramp is hinged in the middle, so it bends (supported underneath by fold-out struts) to accommodate the varying heights of the car floor from the ground. If your truck is higher than most vans, you might need to create a longer ramp so the slope is not too great.

We then put the scooter into low gear and walk it up the ramp, unloaded (we DO NOT RIDE IT UP). We then fold up the ramp and stow it behind the scooter, using occy (octopus) straps (those stretchy things) to hold it in place. husband designed handles on the ramp, to lift it when folded as well as to hook the straps through.

To get the scooter out - we set up the ramp again and still in low gear, walk the scooter out carefully backwards.

Before the ramp, it took two people to lift the thing into the vehicle, and it was really hurting me to try to assist. I would twist my knee or my wrist, just from having to lift and then turn. Not good. And if I had to go on my own into the city, for example - I would need someone to help me get the scooter loaded and unloaded. I don't think I'd be able to do this now.

My scooter is allegedly able to be taken apart, but it's such a hassle we rarely do it. Now I can load/unload on my own and I love it. I have to drive to the train station, but once there I can manage to unload all by myself, then I can catch the train to anywhere in Sydney and drive straight on and off (once I alert the train officials to meet me with their ramps).

Seriously, husband's design is something you should be able to either make yourself, or get someone to make for you, adapting it to your own specs. He made it out of aluminium sheet. If you want, let me know and I'll get him to give you the measurements, plus any improvements he suggests (from the mistakes we made first time round - it's always the way).

We also found our ramps to be MUCH cheaper than anything available - nothing like ours was on the market at all.